Lock-out key holder

ABSTRACT

A solid disc is attached to a hinged, split cylinder. A lock is on one hemicylinder so the device may be secured over a door knob to shield the keyhole of a knob lock with the solid disc. A steel spring on the inside of the disc provides a holder for a key to the knob lock and a lining of sponge rubber inside the hemicylinders makes the device adaptable to several size knobs.

United States Patent Raney 51 Jan. 25, 1972 s41 LOCK-OUT KEY HO 3,236,075 2/1966 Williams ..70/63 3,245,240 4/1966 De Forrest.. 70/209 1 Inventor: Gem! Raney, Odessa, 3,340,709 9/1967 Callahan ..70 2o9 3 343 387 9/1967 Cochran ..70/424 73 A Fill Et I .Mdl d,T l 1 ss'gnee By enmses an ex 3,488,984 1 1970 Salonia ..70 451 [22] Filed: May 22, 1970 Primary ExaminerRoben L. Wolfe [21] Appl' 39935 Attorney-Charles W. Coffee [52] US. Cl ..70/424, 70/63, 109/52 [57] ABSTRACT Z g P A solid disc is attached to a hinged, split cylinder. A lock is on one hemicylinder so the device may be secured over a door 70/209 21 42343" 231 109/5042 knob to shield the keyhole ofa knob lock with the solid disc. A steel spring on the inside of the disc provides a holder for a key [56] References cued to the knob lock and a lining of sponge rubber inside the UNITED STATES PATENTS hemicylinders makes the device adaptable to several size knobs. 2,785,564 3/1957 Rossi ..70/232 Hansen ..206/1 9 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures PATENTKB 25 1272 lNVENTOR GERREL E). RANEY LOCK-OUT KEY HOLDER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1 Field of the Invention This invention relates to locks and more particularly to portable keyhole guards.

In these United States today, locks are used by people for different purposes. The basic purpose for a lock upon a door of a house or apartment is to keep unauthorized persons out. However, with changing relationships, a person who is authorized to enter an apartment today may be unauthorized to enter such apartment tomorrow.

In previous times when relationships between people did not change so rapidly, the problem could be solved by changing the lock on the door. However, with the accelerated pace of modern living and the rapidity with which relationships now change between people, it is often desirable to be more expeditious in depriving entry to a dwelling. An example of such changing relationship might be that the owner of an apartment building gives a key to a tenant, but because of change in relationship, such as failure of tenant to pay rent, the landlord wishes to prevent the tenant from entering the apartment. Other situations might be where a couple was occupying a home in matrimonial bliss, but because of changes in their relationship, one or the other of the spouses will leave the dwelling and the remaining spouse might not wish the departed spouse to reenter the abode, which they had previously shared. Therefore, it is desirable that the remaining spouse be able to prevent access to the lock by the departed spouse who still has a key that will fit the lock.

Also, there are situations that arise where several people need temporary access to a dwelling. Such an occasion might arise during construction when different craftsmen would need entry to perform their work. Another occasion arises in the change of ownership of a dwelling; then, several real estate agents or salesmen may need access to a dwelling or several dwellings.

2. Description of the Prior Art Previous workers in the field have designed shields or hoods or guards for the keyhole of the lock in the knob of the door. Some of these workers in the field, such as FALCK U.S. Pat. No. 2,883,850, used a U-shaped member to hold a cup-shaped shield over the door knob.

BARBER U.S. Pat. No. 3,457,745, uses a somewhat similar U-shaped member to hold a shield over the knob, however, BARBER uses a U-shaped clevis which is a part of the lock itself.

CALLAHAN U.S. Pat. No. 3,340,790, uses a cup-shaped hood and uses the bolt or latch 34 of the lock itself to hold the cup-shaped shield over the door knob.

GOODMAN U.S. Pat. No. 3,167,945, discloses a shield covering the keyhole in a lock in a knob, however, his device is only connected at the front of the shield, depending upon cantilever strength to maintain it in position; therefore, particularly expensive grades of metal must be used to have the necessary rigidity and strength so the device can not be removed with a minimum of physical effort.

JOHNSON U.S. Pat. No. 1,439,552; DeFORREST U.S. Pat. No. 3,245,240, and SHERMAN U.S. Pat. No. 2,169,438, used hinge cups, however, they split the entire cup, resulting in a split in the front shield, which extends over the knob lock itself.

SUMMARY on THE INVENTION 1. New and Different Function I have invented a shield for a door knob lock, which does not utilize the bolt of the lock itself to operate against the knob to hold it in place nor the shackle of the lock itself to hold the device upon the knob, but the shield is held onto the knob by the device itself and the lock is used only to hold the hinged hemicylinders in place. Also, I used a solid shield over the keyhole so that the shield itself is not split at this most critical area. Therefore, I achieve a new and different function by providing a stronger lock which does not depend on strong material for the strength of the finished product.

To solve the problem of making it easier for several real estate agents or salesmen to individually gain access to several different dwellings, I have provided within the shield a holder for the key to the knob lock; therefore, several shields could be keyed to the same key so that any number of real estate agents or salesmen would be able to unlock all of the shields. The key to the respective dwellings is contained within the shield covering the knob lock; therefore, when a salesman needed to show a prospective buyer the house, the salesman would unlock the shield, take the house key from the shield and open the knob lock, which would now be uncovered. Such a system could also be used with construction workers or repair men. Thus I have provided a new and different function of making locked doors accessible to a plurality of people without a multiplication of keys.

2. Objects of the Invention An object of this invention is to provide a lockout device which shields the keyhole of a knob lock.

Another object of this invention is to provide such a shield with a holder for holding the key to the knob lock.

Further objects are to achieve the above with a device that is sturdy, compact, durable, lightweight, simple, safe, efficient, versatile, and reliable, yet inexpensive and easy to manufacture, install, operate, and maintain.

Still further objects are to achieve the above with a method that is safe, rapid, versatile, efficient, and inexpensive, and does not require skilled people to install, adjust, operate, and maintain.

The specific nature of the invention, as well as other objects, uses, and advantages thereof, will clearly appear from the following description and from the accompanying drawing, the different views of which are not necessarily to the same scale.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a device, according to the invention, in the open position.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view with the lock mechanism omitted, taken substantially on line 2-2 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view of the device shown attached to a door knob, taken substantially on line 33 of FIG. 2.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring more particularly to the drawing, it may be seen that this lockout device includes a saucer or disc-shaped shield 10. The shield is attached circumferentially first to hemicylinder 12. This attachment may be made either by making the two integral or by welding the shield 10 to the hemicylinder 12. The first hemicylinder 12 is connected by longitudinal hinge 14 to second hemicylinder 16. With the hemicylinders l2 and 1 closed, the device is cup shaped, that is, a right circular cylinder closed by the shield 10 coaxially at 'one end. First hemiwasher 18 is attached coaxially, as by welding, to first hemicylinder I2 and is attached on the opposite or remote end of hemicylinder 12 from the shield 10. Second hemiwasher 20 is attached coaxially to second hemicylinder 16 at the opposite or remote end of the hemicylinder 16 from the shield 10. The disc-shaped shield 10, the cylinder formed by the hemicylinders I2 and 16, and the washer formed by the hemiwashers l8 and 20, are all coaxial when the device is closed.

When the device is closed, the two hemiwashers .18 and 20 form a closed washer which has a hole therethrough and which is larger than shank 22 of door knob 24. However, the knob 24 is larger than the hole so when the device is locked to the door, it can not be removed therefrom without opening the device into the position as shown in FIG. 1.

The first hemicylinder 12 has lock housing 26 attached along the outside perimeter thereof. First flange 28 on the lock housing 26 overlaps the first hemicylinder 12 and is attached to it as by welding. Second flange 30 on the lock housing 26 overlaps thesecond hemicylinder 16. Lip 32 attached to the second hemicylinder l6 overlies the second flange'30 so that the flange 30 is not exposed to a pry bar to pry the device open when in use. Also, the lip 32 abuts against the side of the lock housing 26, leaving little room to place a pry bar in this area. The lock within the lock housing 26 is a standard tumbler lock operated by key 34. Inasmuch as the lock within the lock housing 26 is standard, it has not been illustrated except to note that it has bolt 36 which extends radially inwardly toward the axis of the hemicylinders. The second hemicylinder 16 has a hole 38 therethrough which is correlatively placed with respect to the bolt 36 so that when the bolt 36 is shot, it extends through the hole 38 securely locking the two hemicylinders together, thus locking the device in a closed or cup-shaped position as seen in the drawings.

The bolt 36 has been illustrated as not being beveled so that the device would not be self-latching. As illustrated, a person must use the key 34 to lock the device over the knob 24. However, it will be readily understood that a beveled spring bolt could be used so that the device would lock when snapped shut.

Cantilever or leaf spring 40 is attached to the inside surface of the disc-shaped shield so that key 42 may be placed within the device. The key 42 is the key that fits the lock in the knob 24. v

Sponge rubber 44, or other compressible, resilient padding material, is attached as by adhesives to the insides of the hemicylinders l2 and 16 as seen in the drawings. Thissponge rubber makes the device adaptable to different size knobs. If it were not used, the device actually would fit snugly only on one size knob and if used on a smaller knob, the device would be loose on the knob, scaring the surface of the knob. Also, the device could not be used ori a larger knob. However, by using sponge rubber, the device fits snugly over a wide variety and sizes of knobs and does not scratch any of them. Inasmuch as the shank 22 of the knobs does not vary widely in size, the device can be made to fit a wide variety of knobs.

The use of the device to deny entry to a dwelling is apparent; in such case, the knob key 42 need not be included. However, when several people need to have access to the house, the knob key 42 would be placed under the spring 40. In this case, there could be 40 such devices and there could be keys 34 in the hands of 20 different people. Then, as each person went to any of the 40 houses, they could take their key 34, open the two hemicylinders, remove the device from the knob, taking the knob key 42 from the device and use the key to unlock the knob 24 on door 46.

Thus it may be seen that l have achieved the objectives of providing access to the building by several different people.

The embodiment shown and described above is only exemplary. I do not claim to have invented all the parts, elements or steps described. Various modifications can be made in the construction, material, arrangement, and operation, and still be within the scope of my invention.'The limits of the invention and the bounds of the patent protection are measured by and defined in the following claims. The restrictive description and drawing of the specific example above do not point out what an infringement of this patent would be, but are to enable the reader to make and use the invention.

I claim as my invention: l. A knob lock shielding device comprising in combination: a. a disc-shaped shield, b. a cylinder coaxial with said shield, c. said cylinder composed of two hemicylinders, namely,

i. a first hemicylinder attached circumferentially to said shield,

ii. a second hemicylinder hinged to the first hemicylinder,

d. a washer with a hole coaxial with said shield,

e. said washer composed of two hemiwashers, namely r. a first hemiwasher attached circumferentially to said first hemicylinder remote from said shield, ii. a second hemiwasher attached circumferentially to said second hemicylinder remote from said shield. f. a lock attached to the first hemicylinder, g. a bolt of the lock extending radially inwardly from the lock, h. a hole in the second hemicylinder located in mating relationship to the bolt j. so that when the bolt is shot, the hemicylinders with attached hemiwashers are locked together as a cylinder with attached washer. 2. The invention as defined in claim 1 with the additional limitation of k. a resilient leaf spring means attached to the disc within the cylinder for holding a key within the device. 3. The invention as defined in claim 1 with the additional limitations of k. a door knob having m. a shank, n. said device enclosing said knob with o. the washer surrounding said shank, and p. said knob larger than the hole in the washer. 4. The invention as defined in claim 3 with the additional limitation of q. a resilient leaf spring means attached to the disc within the cylinder for holding a key within the device.

5. The invention as defined in claim 1 with the additional limitation of r k. compressible, resilient padding material adhered to the inside of both hemicylinders.

6. The invention as defined in claim 5 with the additional limitations of m. a door knob having n. a shank,

0. said device enclosing said knob with p. the washer surrounding said shank, and

q. said knob larger than the hole in the washer.

7. The invention as defined in claim 5 with the additional limitation of m. -a resilient leaf spring means attached to the disc within the cylinder for holding a key within the device.

8. The invention as defined in claim 7 with the additional limitations of n. a door knob having 0. a shank,

p. said device enclosing said knob with q. the washer surrounding said shank, and

r. said knob larger than the hole in the washer.

The invention as defined in claim 8 with the additional limitation of s. said padding material being sponge rubber. 

1. A knob lock shielding device comprising in combination: a. a disc-shaped shield, b. a cylinder coaxial with said shield, c. said cylinder composed of two hemicylinders, namely, i. a first hemicylinder attached circumferentially to said shield, ii. a second hemicylinder hinged to the first hemicylinder, d. a washer with a hole coaxial with said shield, e. said washer composed of two hemiwashers, namely i. a first hemiwasher attached circumferentially to said first hemicylinder remote from said shield, ii. a second hemiwasher attached circumferentially to said second hemicylinder remote from said shield, f. a lock attached to the first hemicylinder, g. a bolt of the lock extending radially inwardly from the lock, h. a hole in the second hemicylinder located in mating relationship to the bolt j. so that when the bolt is shot, the hemicylinders with attached hemiwashers are locked together as a cylinder with attached washer.
 2. The invention as defined in claim 1 with the additional limitation of k. a resilient leaf spring means attached to the disc within the cylinder for holding a key within the device.
 3. The invention as defined in claim 1 with the additional limitations of k. a door knob having m. a shank, n. said device enclosing said knob with o. the washer surrounding said shank, and p. said knob larger than the hole in the washer.
 4. The invention as defined in claim 3 with the additional limitation of q. a resilient leaf spring means attached to the disc within the cylinder for holding a key within the device.
 5. The invention as defined in claim 1 with the additional limitation of k. compressible, resilient padding material adhered to the inside of both hemicylinders.
 6. The invention as defined in claim 5 with the additional limitations of m. a door knob having n. a shank, o. said device enclosing said knob with p. the washer surrounding said shank, and q. said knob larger than the hole in the washer.
 7. The invention as defined in claim 5 with the additional limitation of m. a resilient leaf spring means attached to the disc within the cylinder for holding a key within the device.
 8. The invention as defined in claim 7 with the additional limitations of n. a door knob having o. a shank, p. said device enclosing said knob with q. the washer surrounding said shank, and r. said knob larger than the hole in the washer.
 9. The invention as defined in claim 8 with the additional limitation of s. said padding material being sponge rubber. 